harpersfallsfandomcom-20200214-history
Lady Carleila Johnston
Lady Carleila Michaela Johnston (previously Austin) is a character on the series, Harpers Falls: New Beginnings. She was played on a recurring basis by former breakout Sunset Beach villainess, Dominique Jennings, but after Jennings left the show, the role was recast with Heather Hemmens, who is best known for her role of scorned wife, Marcie on the series, If Loving You is Wrong. "When I first heard about Dominique Jennings leaving HF," Heather said, "I saw the role of Lady Carleila as something to try for. As much fun as I have on If Loving You is Wrong, playing the troubled and vengeful Marcie, I thought it would be interesting to play a character who was a bit more sedate. So, on a lark, I auditioned for the role, with me doing my lines with Jane Fonda (who makes recurrent visits as Lady Dorothy Bradford) Imagine my surprise when Albert contacted me to tell me that I was the new Lady Carleila. I was thrilled!" A woman who, despite coming from very humble beginnings in the impoverished East End of London, has risen to the top of fashionable London society, Lady Carleila Austin is possessed of beauty, wit, wisdom and grace that normally would have come from inbreeding. She wows anyone in her presence with her generosity, gentleness and her beauty. She has also been seen on many of the biggest magazines in all of the UK. Carleila attended Oxford, after finding the confinement of the East End to be stifling to her. During those years, she met wealthy Lord David Austin. Most of his moneyed friends sneered at the commoner Carleila, until it was revealed that her mother, Evelyn, had been the granddaughter of one of the first Anglo-African barons in the House of Lords, and she too was a peer of the Royal Courts. The Lady Chancellor Lady Dorothy Jones Bradford remembered Carleila from when she had accompanied her mother to the courts, and after Evelyn's death, helped elevate her to Lady Carleila Johnston. Not long after that, she and David were married and she became Lady Carleila Austin. They were married for almost 20 years before he died of a heart attack. After that, Lady Carleila threw herself into her work for the Royal Court, keeping busy. Carleila has vowed that she would never remarry, after losing the love of her life. Yet, when Lady Dorothy went to Boston, Carleila accompanied her, and she now also has a suite of rooms for her use in the Ritz Carlton. The charming Lady Carleila also has met the Harpers and is impressed with their steadfast loyalty to the people they knew. Carleila was also scorned by the snobbish Erica Harper, when she was first married to David (their's was an interracial marriage), when she was told that she had no business, a commoner like her, being married into royalty. Carleila told her that "she had no right sitting in judgment of people she had no business judging in the first place!" The court erupted in applause after Erica received that dressing down! Lady Carleila also gave snobbish Bethany Arthur a verbal shredding, when the snobbish school administrator refused to give a bona fide reason why she was rejecting the daughter of a fellow peer. Bethany was not even bothering to hide her racism, which not only angered Lady Carleila, but also her peer, Lady Dorothy Jones Bradford. Although she lives most of the time in London, now, and rarely comes back to Boston, Lady Carleila has kept up with the news of the Harpers. She sent some lovely flower arrangements for the recent funerals of Michael, Hannah, and Jennifer. She even sent an arrangement for the funeral of her former hated enemy, Erica. Recently, she took back her maiden name. She is once again officially Lady Carleila Johnston. Category:Characters Category:Harper family allies